Sacramento,
CA Thursday, December 16, 2004. After spending nearly
2 years in an animal shelter, “Mikey” has
been reunited with his owner and is finally home.Mikey
had been separated from Matthew Strong after he and
his wife divorced. His ex-wife kept Mikey until she
moved and her landlord would not allow dogs, Strong
explained."She
told me she was taking him to a shelter," he said.By
this time, Strong had moved to Sacramento, where he
also was living in a complex that did not allow pets.
Strong even asked friends to take Mikey in, but had
no luck. He thought often about Mikey, remembering that
he didn't want a dog at first, but how after his wife
brought the puppy home, he became more and more attached
to the dog. Soon, he and Mikey were best buddies.“I
thought I’d never see Mikey again” 18
Months later when he was having trouble sleeping, Strong
began surfing the Internet, and found himself at Google.“Out
of curiosity I typed in “Tahoe Mikey”.”
Strong explained. “And there he was, the very
first result; staring at me was Mikey!” Strong
worried that Mikey was possibly no longer at the shelter.
He sent an email to the organization that had posted
Mikey’s photo. Connie Nowlin of the Wylie Animal
Rescue Foundation contacted Strong and Mikey’s
identity was confirmed. Mikey had been at the shelter
for 18 months.
"Mikey was so lucky. WARF took really good care
of him," he said. "They had a kiddy pool with
rocks for him to play with, volunteers that would take
him on long walks, and people would bring him home to
play."A
few days later Strong made the two hour journey to the
Placer County Animal Shelter in Tahoe City where Mikey
was housed. Mikey recognized him right away and was
ready to go home. Before leaving the shelter, Mikey
demonstrated to the WARF volunteers some hidden tricks
he learned from Strong years before.Samantha
Loudon, one of the co-directors of Wylie Animal Rescue
Foundation, said the reunion must have been meant to
be."He
had been adopted two weeks ago, but was brought back
because one of the roommates wasn't comfortable with
him," she said. Strong
and many of his friends at work have pitched in donations
to give to WARF for taking such good care of Mikey.“Mikey
has always been my best buddy and now he’s home
back where he belongs. We have a lot of catching up
to do and I’m looking forward to it. I’m
so thankful for WARF and all the volunteers who helped
bring Mikey home, they made us a very merry Christmas.”